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DUBOIS, CHARLOTTE ESTELLE

DUBOIS, CHARLOTTE ESTELLE (1903–1982). Charlotte Estelle DuBois, music educator, daughter of Smith and Caroline (Lambert) DuBois, was born at Liberty, Indiana, on October 26, 1903. She earned a bachelor of arts degree at Western College in Oxford, Ohio, in 1925, an academic diploma in piano at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1927, and an M.A. at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1936. Before moving to Texas she served in Louisiana as supervisor of music for the Shreveport and Caddo Parish schools. In 1940 she joined the music faculty at the University of Texas, where she remained until her retirement in August 1971. She took guest teaching assignments at the University of California at Los Angeles from January to August 1949, the University of Michigan from June to August 1952, and the University of British Columbia for the summer session of 1958.

Charlotte DuBois was the first woman to be named a full professor in the University of Texas music department. In the Music Educators National Conference she served as a member of the Education Research Council and as chairman of the National Committee on Music for the Elementary Teacher. She contributed articles to the Music Educators Journal, The School Musician, Southwestern Musician, and other publications. She wrote Songs to Play (1954) and The Keyboard Way to Music (1956) and was a coauthor of the widely used elementary textbook series This Is Music for Today (1971). She gave lectures and demonstrations at numerous colleges and universities and for conventions of such groups as the National Association of Schools of Music and the Music Educators National Conference. She was a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Austin and a Republicanqv.

Professor DuBois was an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota, a national fraternity for women in music, and was awarded the fraternity's ring of excellence. She received a Teaching Excellence Award from the Students' Association of the University of Texas and in October 1971 the rarely-given Citation of Service "in recognition of excellence and devotion to the music education profession" from the Texas Music Educators Association. Charlotte DuBois died on January 1, 1982, in Austin and was buried in Liberty, Indiana.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Who's Who of American Women, 1958–59.